


You Are My Sunshine

by StrivingForImprovement



Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types, The Avengers - Ambiguous Fandom
Genre: Bucky Barnes Feels, Bucky Barnes Has Issues, Bucky Barnes Needs a Hug, Bucky Barnes Recovering, Bucky Barnes Remembers, Domestic Avengers, Domestic Fluff, Fluff, Implied Relationships, Protective Steve, Protective Steve Rogers, Winter Soldier Bucky Barnes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-28
Updated: 2021-01-28
Packaged: 2021-03-14 08:34:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,651
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29043204
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/StrivingForImprovement/pseuds/StrivingForImprovement
Summary: Follow a day in the life of Steve Rogers and Bucky Barnes as Steve happily delights over his day with his sunshine.
Relationships: James "Bucky" Barnes/Steve Rogers
Comments: 3
Kudos: 25
Collections: My Ultimate Avengers Playlist





	You Are My Sunshine

Steve woke up with an unnatural and unexplainable amount of joy in his heart. It wasn’t that he wasn’t usually happy, he was happy often, it was just that he had no particular reason to feel this… giddy this morning.

He heard the sounds of something cooking in the next room and his face broke out into a grin. He got up and headed to the kitchen. Bucky was there, in a pair of sweatpants and a t-shirt cooking for the two of them ready to start their day.

When Steve had come back to life again, he knew in his heart that there was no way he would see his best friend again and part of him died with that realization. Then, when he did see his friend again, brainwashed with no memory of him and working for Hydra as their top assassin he missed the pain of just thinking his friend was dead. This was much worse and he had known that as a soldier he should take him out, eliminate the threat and save the day as a hero should but he just couldn’t do it. He couldn’t give up hope on his friend like that. He wouldn’t think that he would lose him forever for a second time like that and so, he had tried. He had tried for a long hard time. Many thought his efforts were fruitless and expected them to fail.

“I didn’t think you would be up this early,” Bucky said in greeting. “You seemed tired after last night.”

Steve had wanted to show Bucky an arcade yesterday. It was an ambitious task seeing as Steve himself wasn’t even used to the bright lights and loud sounds of the place. It was almost too much for him but he thought that Buckyt might like it and it fell within his supposed current mission of educating Bucky about the modern world. He told SHIELD that he was the best for the job, being someone who was from Bucky’s era and who had to adjust to being in the 21st century himself. He kindly left out the part that if they tried to put Bucky in anyone else’s care he would likely run away and if they tried to detain him, the agents unlucky enough to get the job would likely end up in a pool of their own blood. Thankfully SHIELD had granted his request and now Bucky lived with him at the Avengers Tower. He rarely left Steve’s floor and never without Steve by him but slowly he was getting better and better at navigating the modern world. He even came up to the communal floor every once in a while although he rarely joined the group and usually stayed at the edge of the room silently watching. It had been strange at first but the Avengers got used to it and understood that currently, that was the most he was comfortable with around them.

They had gotten in from their outing late last night and Steve fell into bed tired but happy having entertained Bucky all night at different games. He smiled at him now, watching him cook and Bucky stared at his face for a second, observing him.

“You’re happy today.”

Steve shrugged, still smiling. “I’m with you and there’s delicious food waiting for me to eat it. What’s not to be happy about?”

Bucky stared at him a second more and shrugged, turning back to his pan. His instincts from when he had been Hydra’s weapon told him to dig into it more. He wanted to find the meaning behind the smile, to discover if it was a threat, and to use it against Steve if it was a weakness. He pushed those thoughts and feelings away. They still came just as easily as they did when he was still brainwashed but they were getting easier and easier to push down every day when it came to certain people. 

Steve went over to the elevator door where he knew the morning paper would be sitting like always. He wasn’t sure how it got there but he had asked Tony if it would be ok to get a paper delivered to the tower and ever since each day that’s where his paper was. He picked it up and went back over to the kitchen table where he sat down, legs crossed, and began reading about the day’s events. He knew it was a bit outdated and there were other ways to get his news now but Steve liked reading the paper. There was something so familiar and comforting about it and he saw no reason to stop. He silently pulled out the crossword and slid it across the table to where Bucky would sit when he was done making his meal. It didn’t take long for the man to join him at the table sliding a plate with an omelet and buttered toast over to him. He sat down with his own plate of the same food and started in on the puzzle as the two stayed that way for a while in companionable silence.

Every now and again the silence would be broken by Bucky asking Steve a question. He never asked him for answers to the puzzle but he sometimes asked him to verify certain pieces of information he knew to see if it fit the clue. It was a challenge, especially since most of the hints and answers were subjects from the modern-day but the difficulty was what Bucky liked about it. He finished the puzzle and checked the answers for yesterday’s puzzle (all correct as usual) and looked up at Steve expectantly.

“So what’s my lesson on modern times for today?”

Steve folded his paper and beamed up at Bucky. “Well, the team is having a movie night upstairs tonight. We could go to that.”

“Would SHIELD accept that as my only training for the day? Seems kinda light.”

Steve shrugged. “We’ll just tell them that after the excitement of yesterday we felt it was best to have a calm day today. We kept things minimal to avoid overstimulating you.”

Bucky smirked around a mouthful of toast. “Are you lying for me, captain Rogers?”

Steve shrugged again, still smiling and continued to eat. 

After breakfast, they both moved to the living room to complete the next part of their day, memory acquisition. It was something SHIELD determined as mandatory. Every day Steve and Bucky sat down in the living room and tried to get some of Bucky’s memories back. It was all recorded and sent to SHIELD. On a good day, Bucky would remember something and the two would celebrate his discovery of a memory. Even the smallest things garnered the largest reactions from Steve and the cautious happiness of Bucky. On a bad day, he wouldn’t remember anything at all and they would just call it quits. On his worst days, he would remember something he had shoved away from his time with Hydra. Those days were never fun and they often ended with Bucky having to be restrained or calmed down quickly before he went berserk. Today was a good day.

“...he’s the boogie-woogie bugle boy-”

“Of Company B.” Steve stopped looking at Bucky expectantly but patiently. He had remembered something, he could tell. He had to wait for him to put the memory back together and say what it was. This one didn’t take much time.

“Hannah… no Hilda her name started with an H it was H… Heather! There was a girl named Heather! I danced with her to that song!”

Steve was practically glowing. “The troops gathered for a secret party one night to let off some steam. Someone sneaked in some girls and you danced with her all night to that song. You were quite taken by her. In fact, I was surprised you even asked.”

“She had that cherry red lip paint, I kept thinking about how it would probably never come off if I kissed her and I didn’t ask her. She asked me.” That was no small feat at that time but that was part of why Bucky had liked her. She was bold, nice, and fun.

Steve stood, satisfied. “I have to go write up the report to SHIELD saying that you remembered something.” Steve left to do that. Bucky didn’t love that Steve had to tell SHIELD everything he remembered. In some way, it felt like he was being violated but that was how SHIELD wanted to keep track of his progress. To them, if he was remembering it meant that his brain was healing and if he was healing and regaining his humanity it meant he was less of a danger. The silver lining was that since Steve was doing it if Bucky wanted him to not reveal a memory or alter it slightly for him in the report he would. He had before. They couldn’t do it often for fear of SHIELD catching on that he wasn’t getting the memories back he said he was but for truly personal events or things he wanted to keep private he would ask Steve to put something else in its place instead and he would.

Bucky cleaned while Steve worked. He fixed the kitchen, returning it to its spotless state in a matter of minutes. He finished fixing it and returned to the living room, flipping on the TV and turning to the news. Steve may prefer to get his information from the paper but Bucky preferred the TV. Steve said it was bad for him to watch it. Everything on the news was always so negative and if something was said about Hydra or an attack or anything else it may upset Bucky and trigger him. Still, Bucky had insisted. He claimed it was like Bruce controlling his anger. Avoiding upsetting things wasn’t the solution and could lead to more problems when an inevitable stressor of life appeared. Steve had agreed unhappy about the whole thing and at first, he had insisted on being there whenever Bucky watched the news in case something happened. Now Bucky watched it whenever he wanted with no supervision and no worrying.

Steen finished writing his report and returned to the living room sitting down on the couch opposite Bucky. He always seeked his best friend when he wasn’t in the room with him. They watched without a care in the world taking in the discussion of the events of the world. Somehow after that a kids show played on TV afterwards, neither was quite sure how they got there but they didn’t feel like changing it.

“What time is the movie night?”

“Good question. Hey Jarvis?”

“Yes, Mr. Rogers."

“What time is the movie night tonight?”

“It is set for 7pm.”

“That’s early.” Steve mused. Normally their movie nights started much later.

“It was Sir’s turn to pick the movie and he decided on a Disney marathon instead of just one movie.”

There we go, that made sense. It totally sounded like something Tony would do. Steve turned to Bucky. “Are you going to be up for that? There’s no telling how many movies Tony picked out. I can’t tell you how long it’ll be.”

“It’s fine.” Steve could hear that his voice was strained and he could hear the unspoken words. _‘I’ll try.’_ He smiled at him encouragingly. Bucky didn’t stay around people long. The movie was already going to be a trial for him when there was one. Steve was always the first one to tell Bucky he could take things slower or stop an activity if he wanted or if it was too overwhelming but he wanted him to make progress and he was always so proud whenever Bucky took any steps towards it. 

He nodded. “Ok. Let me know if you want us to come back down.” Bucky nodded and went back to looking at the tv. In his heart, he knew he could do it. He had been doing so well and he was ready for this. He had been to movie nights at the tower before but this one would be much longer and since no one was away on missions for the day and Thor was back from Asgard everyone would be there.

The two decided to have a lazy day. They ordered a pizza to snack on throughout the day if they got hungry and sat there for the rest of the day until seven. They didn’t even train, something unheard of for the pair. They just didn’t want to disturb the atmosphere. It was so peaceful and calm and happy. Finally, however, seven rolled around and they got up from the couch and headed to the elevator.

“Spangles! Oscar! Good to see you!”

Bucky stared, confused. “Oscar?”

“He means Oscar the grouch from Sesame Street.” Cap provided the context for yet another one of Tony’s nicknames.

“The gang’s all here! We’re starting with The Lion King Cap. I know you’ve seen it but I doubt Buckaroo has so don’t say anything!” Tony led the two over to the rest of the group and sure enough everyone was there. They all greeted Cap and gave polite head nods to Bucky. He still didn’t like to talk much, especially to large groups of people. He nodded back and lingered at the back of the group.

The movie started and everyone quieted up and moved to the couches. Bucky stayed back not wanting to get too close. True to Jarvis’ word Tony had picked out multiple classic Disney movies, all of which were foreign to Bucky. They watched The Lion King, Aladdin, The Princess and the Frog and Cinderella. It was so late, Bucky wasn’t even sure what time it was anymore. Most of the group huddled around the TV were asleep or nodding off. The only ones who were still awake were Steve and Thor who looked like he was fighting to be the last one to close his eyes. Bucky looked at the sleeping group and weighed his next move carefully considering the consequences in pros and cons before deciding he would make one last step towards progress today. He took a deep breath and slowly and quietly snuck over to the couch before he cautiously took a seat next to Steve. He moved like he was in a minefield but all he was doing was sitting next to his friend. No one was awake or aware enough to notice him doing it so it really wasn’t that big of a deal but when Steve looked at him he smiled like it was the most beautiful thing he had seen all day. On one hand, Bucky was a little amused at what a big deal he was making of this, they had done the same thing all day sitting next to each other on the couch and watching TV. On the other, he couldn’t give that much weight because he was just so happy to have someone like that in his life, who cared and was so proud when he progressed and who had his best interest at heart.

Steve and Bucky fell asleep soon after that side by side and smiling. Between their thighs, Steve had a hand resting on top of Bucky’s. It was warm and soft but most importantly of all, it was a reminder that he was there, that they were there together and that this time no one was going to take him away. In a rare show of true love and trust, Buck allowed himself to feel safe for a moment knowing that he was alright. Steve was here. His light in the darkness. His sunshine.

_You are my sunshine_

_My only sunshine_

_You make me happy_

_When skies are gray_

_You'll never know dear_

_How much I love you_

_Please don't take my sunshine away_


End file.
